Happy Thanksgiving!

Ahh..thanksgiving in november I think is finally feeling like a normal, natural holiday to me! It always felt weird, because I am used to thanksgiving in the beginning of October. I really, really enjoy having 2 thanksgivings every year...it's sooo amazing. And, i'm lucky because every year brian and I won't have to be pulled one way or another as to which family to celebrate with!! We'll be able to be at both...which is fun. (at the top, me and andrea pigging out eating my mom's raw stuffing...which is only bread and spices, celery, onion. DELICIOUS.)

Well, in honor of this thanksgiving, I thought i'd post a few pictures of this past thanksgiving with my family this october!!!!! Here is the fam around the table for thanksgiving Me and my sister! Andrea just turned 16!
Andrea...isn't she adorable!? Coniston...my home town! Me, andrea and her boyfriend Max
The Fam

The Holiday Season has Come!

Well...The holiday season is finally here. My husband just finished his first quarter at VLI (vineyard leadership institute) this past weekend. Now he's off for a month!! I am SOOOOOOOO proud of him. He's had exams and had to write sermons and has done such an awesome job. I am so happy for him and that he's gotten the courage to follow God's guidance and start VLI this fall!!!!!!! It hasn't been easy, as there is lots of studying and writing and reading that needs to be done, but he's gotten through it!

I am so excited to see more and more of God's purpose for our lives, and as we follow His lead.

Christmas songs

The Christmas songs are making its wave through various blogs!
Tonight, I was in the computer room, while brian was in the bathroom washing up after dinner. And what do you know, I started singing a christmas song!
Brian bolts in my computer room as yells (i can hear it all in slow motion) "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Don't go on Brandi's blog! Don't go on Brandi's blog!!!"

He somehow knew that I had been singing christmas songs because of Brandi's blog. And, well, it was true. Because I had just read Brandi's new blog post about 20 minutes earlier, so I had the christmas songs in my head!!!

Well, I just thought that was funny!

Eating Orange Cups

Today I sit, staring at the window sill...
Looking out at the rainy day,
Over my backyard hill;
It's raining, gray and dreary...
But on these days, to me this makes me cheery,
cool crisp air refreshes me...
nice soft raindrops, it is what I want it to be;
Oh, I sit at my chair...
Eating my gelatin orange cup,
looking out the window at that cold crisp air
The cup tells me to "go out there!"
I enjoy my orange cup,
sweet, refreshing, colorful wet and cold...
just as I enjoy these rainy days, young as well as old;
So as I sit eating my orange cup, I remember my favorite kind of days...
the dreary, cold, colorful, rainy, wet and refreshing ways,
of the good old cool crisp days;
Never will my life be the same...
After eating my gelatin orange cup again!

Crazy Geeks at "CoCo's Grille"

Well, "some" people say that I always take pictures when i'm out with "particular" people, and they never see those pictures again! Well here they are, folks!
Do I even need to explain these pictures!? I have some 'funny' friends, don't I? Well...to sum it up. Brandi, Angie and I we're planning to go out for dinner. Angie wants something "different". Boy, did we get something different! Different as in, half the food on the menu wasn't available! And it's not like we went there really late, it was only, like, 7pm! Well. Angie says she wants something different, Brandi wanted 'comfort food' so we came up with 3 different cuisines. Mexican, Italian and Chinese. As soon as chinese was mentioned, I said, "lets make sure we go to a GOOD chinese resturaunt!" so angie comes up with "coo-coo's grille" (actually it's CoCo's, but coo-coo sounds more like the resturaunt. Angie acted like it was going to be this awesome place. Angie jokes around on the way there, "what if we have to order at the front of the resturaunt??" Brandi says, laughing, "I don't want to order at the front!" Well we get in, and "wheel of fortune" is playing. We also see a guy with a big gold chain, a big beer belly, with a lame blazer, and a red button down shirt half hanging out of his pants. That was hilarious. What a place! and, this was in Grandview so I guess I had my expectations a little high. We try to order things like spring rolls and egg rolls and what not, and they man kept on telling us, "sorry, none available! we don't have that." like half the items. Then, I get some rootbeer from the fountain and sweetly asked if they could change it because water was coming out. guess what I got back. "sorry! we don't have any more!" What a weird place. But we ended up having a lot of fun! Bob came in, starving and got this weird cat-meat chinese noodle plate-of-smelly-stuff. It was rank! It smelled like burnt cat. the meat looked like burnt cat, too. Bob, didn't like it! (look at the pictures!). But it was a reeeeeeeeally fun night. I'm glad I have such fun friends as these!!!!
*and yes, I have a new template, and no, I am not following in Angie's footsteps! I was tired, reeeeeeally tired of the old one and this ones is really nice and I like it!!

Ahem....forgot a name!

Ahem....ahem! I forgot a special name while writing my last post about people who thinks i'm a real life walking talking legend. I forgot to name ROBERT! (I am truley sorry, Robert!) But ya know, i pretty much take it as a HUGE compliment that he wrote to me saying I didn't put HIS NAME in the list of PEOPLE WHO THINK I'M A LEGEND!
Now this is for real. I MUST be a legend now, since I have people commenting wanting me to put their names in for people who think i'm a legend!
thanks, Robert! you're definetely in my post now!
Thanks for the compliment!

I think that is absolutely HILARIOUS.

now, have I forgotten anybody else? I'd be MORE than happy to put your name up! I know you guys need to make sure that your on the list of "legendooooers".

Being a Legend is a big job!

Ahhhh...have any of you ever wondered about actual LEGENDS? you know, those special people that the common human kind can't get off their mind. Usually legends are very brilliant people, too. Well, you've come to the right place, becuase I am a true, tried and tested LEGEND! I know I know, your wondering why? Well if you come anywhere 5 miles within grove city, or COLUMBUS for that matter, you'll hear talkings about a particular person talking about freckles being in places that the sun doesn't see and private parts in my journal. Also dancing. Dancing i have to admit makes me a legend because when people see me dance, they get very excited! they love it!

Being a legend means that people are actually still talking about things you've said and done, even if its like 4 months later! (hilarious!)

I thought it up to go on to http://www.dictionary.com and really find out what a legend, like me, is!


6. a collection of stories about an admirable person.

7. a person who is the center of such stories: She became a legend in her own lifetime.

8. Archaic. a story of the life of a saint, esp. one stressing the miraculous or unrecorded deeds of the saint.

Well...would you look at this!???? Brandi, Brandy, Craig, Kendra, Amanda, Angie, for alllll the people who went to nicaragua with me and beyond, for all of you who consistantly remind me that I am, indeed a legend, THANKS! because I really really like the definition, and I think those definitions are very true of me, indeed.

Thanks, honey's!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

Well, I know this is very late in coming, but I hadn't had time to post! I've had people say, "post! post!" so finally, I took the time to write. I wrote this letter initially to all my family in canada and brian's in the states, as a thank you for donating towards my trip. so I wrote this a month ago, and it just NOW occured to me that I can post my nicaragua experience on here! that'll quench your "where am I going.."readers thirst.

Upon arriving at the airport, I was very excited to get on a plane for the first time! I had to wake up at 3:30 in the morning, but I didn't feel tired at all. I said by to Brian, and went off with my team to go through the luggage, tickets, and waiting. I got on, and was able to sit by a window! The plane took off and it was the most amazing experience. It felt like a giant roller coaster. It was perfectly clear and got to see all the way down to the ground. We arrived in Texas safe and sound, and literally had to go straight to the next plane with no stops. We got onto the plane heading to Nicaragua. I sat beside a Native Nicaraguan girl. She was about my age. She had lived in Seattle to get some decent education and was returning home to live. She told me all about Nicaragua, some of the language, names of volcanoes, and more. It was a great first experience of meeting a Nicaraguan. From the airplane I saw volcanoes, lakes, and rocky landscape.

A while later we arrived in Nicaragua. We we're all very tired by this point, and the line in customs was very long. We got through it with no problems! We met up with the full-time missionary, Doug Effinger, and waited for the bus. We had one bus carry our luggage and another bus carry us. It was a very squishy bus! We had a 2 drive from Managua to Jinotepe. I sat by the window and got my first taste of this poor country. It was very difficult to see. Very poor, beggars all over the streets, dirty with garbage, tin houses, some even without roofs. Most people didn't have electricity or anything. I was already pretty tired, but seeing all this stuff was mentally draining on me. On a good note, the view from the bus on the bus was awesome. Rolling hills, volcanoes, tropical trees everywhere, very blue skies...it's a beautiful country.

When we arrived at the orphanage in Jinotepe, we were all, by this point, very tired. We got all our stuff in our rooms and just relaxed for awhile. The area we stayed at, Arms of Love, is a huge property that spreads out into the jungle. There is a boys home, another home that they are currently building for more orphans, A basketball court, a pool that they are currently building as well, and a team house. We stayed at the team house. The team house was very nice. It was as Spanish as it can get. Marble floors, everything wide open, courtyard, and a big veranda with two hammocks. The view from the veranda was magnificent. It was the jungle, and there was a giant volcano in our views sight. In the sitting area, there were rocking chairs you could sit on and let the cool breeze hit your face. We just relaxed our first night, and ate dinner. (which, by the way, was some of the most delicious food I've ever eaten!)We slept in bunk cots. I had a fishnet to protect me!

Every morning we did devotionals with our group, and one person each morning had to teach. Then we would go sit on our rocking chairs until breakfast. Most mornings, breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with peppers and hot sauce, rolls, and fruit. We had pure juices like mango, passion fruit, and a purple juice that actual came from a cactus! Our lunches and dinners were at the same time everyday, and they consisted of rice, beans, chicken, rolls, salads. It was something different everyday. Like pineapple chicken, chicken soup and so on. It was all delicious.

Every day after breakfast we would get straight to work. One team (I was on this team) painted every day, the outside of the team house. Another team, (mainly the youth) digged holes to build a fence. At the end of our trip, the full-time missionaries told us we did double the work that they expected in that time frame. What a blessing to hear that! We would work through to the afternoon, until the boys got home from school and were done homework. Which was about 4pm. Then we would play with them! Play sports, blow bubbles, teach them how to build paper airplanes. The boys were beautiful kids. They melted my heart so much! I heard some of their stories and they were very tragic. I enjoyed spending time with them so much. Just loving them. I got to sit in English classes that a teacher on our team was teaching. I got to help out teaching them to talk in English sentences. These classes were for the older, teenage boys. The boys ranged from 3-17. All the boys were so unbelievably adorable. In the Arms of Love orphanage, they learn about Christian values and are taught the bible, go to church, have nightly bible studies and so on. We got to participate in one of their nightly bible studies, which was one of the most amazing experiences there. One of the house mothers taught it, and she only spoke Spanish. We had someone there to relay what she was saying in English. Some of the boys would talk about Jesus during the study. Then, we had musical worship where everyone sang, with guitars and bongos. We sang in both English and Spanish! It was a very wonderful experience.

The only days we did not work were Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we took a leisure day out into the ancient city of Granada, which is apparently the oldest city in all of the Americas. It had huge cathedrals, old hotels and little shops on the street. First, we took a boat ride on Nicaragua Lake. Nicaragua lake is gigantic. It's fresh water, but there are actually fresh water sharks that live in this lake. (I didn't know fresh water sharks even existed!). We took a boat ride around all the little Islands, including monkey island which was full of wild monkeys! They just sat around the rocks and hung from trees. Our leader said they would have come onto the boat if we remembered the bananas! We rode around all the little islands with hutches and homes. The architect was amazing on some of these homes. It was definitely where more of the wealthy Nicaraguans lived. After that, we walked around the city and looked at the different cathedrals, and old ancient signs and buildings. We also went shopping there, too. There were lots of beggars, including this one little girls and boy who followed me everywhere. We ate lunch at a pizza place, which had delicious pizza there! The people were so nice, and the service was fantastic. We drank from glass coke bottles that read 1995 on them. After lunch, we headed out to the volcano! We actually went on top of a big volcano and looked down into the crater, which was a lake. People lived in the craters and everything. From that view we saw another big volcano. It was the most beautiful view I'd ever seen. We also did more shopping there, as well.

We saw turantula's and crazy looking bugs. Some saw scorpions as well! And, get this: believe it or not, i wasn't even scared! Well, i DID have a net over my bed which kept me safe, (and smart). But yeah, we had lots of turantula sightings in our team house. I didn't even wear my 98.11 % deet bug spray, in which i am paying for right now. I still have bites that just won't leave, and scars.

On Sunday, we went to a Vineyard Church in Las Palmas, about 2 hours away from our orphanage. Everybody went, including the girls from the girls orphanage. Can you believe that people drive 2 hours each week to go to church? That's amazing. The church service was one of another great experiences. The worship time was awesome. They sang the same songs that we have in our church, except in Spanish. I sang along, reading from the screen. It was a wonderful time. After church, we headed over to the girls orphanage. (the girls and boys stay separate right now, and we stayed in the boys home. Some of them are siblings.) We ate a big lunch at the girls home and spent time with the girls the entire afternoon. I bonded with a girl name Luce. She was about 13 years old. She was very peppy and spirited. (she was rating the boys on the mission trip from 1-10 on how cute they were. She showed me her scrapbook of pictures, and her time in that orphanage. Her story is extremely tragic. Her mother put her out on the street to beg when she was about 7 years old. She got run over by a bus, (pedestrians have no right of way in Nicaragua) and her entire leg broke. Her mother, instead of getting her help, put her back on the street to beg because cripples get more money. Her leg was broke for a very long time and when they took her away, it hadn't healed properly. She was very sweet. Some of the other girls, as well, showed me their scrapbooks! It was so much hotter in the city than in Jinotepe, which is in the jungle and on a big cliff, so we got cold breezes. Another thing about Nicaragua is that it is winter season there. It gets dark at 7pm. It's much cooler too, than I expected, which was good!

I bonded lots with the boys. Especially a few in particular. On our last day, I savored the time I was spending with them, as I knew I wouldn't see them for a long time after that. Each and every one of the boys gave me a big, big hug. Some of them squeezed me SO tight, I couldn't breathe. I cried, and was very sad to say goodbye. Even Luis cried! But on another note, I did miss Brian like crazy. I had to spend my 3 year anniversary in Nicaragua, away from him. When Brian picked me up from the airport, he had 1 dozen red roses, my favorite chocolates and a big anniversary card. He took me out to eat after that, Tony's Where we had our wedding reception.

The trip was an experience of a lifetime, in fact, these sorts of trips may be a bunch of experiences in my lifetime. I am already thinking about going on another missions trip next year. I plan on going again and again. Maybe Nicaragua, but maybe somewhere else. I am very excited to see what God has in store for me!

If you would like to see all my pictures from my trip, you can go online.

http://www.brianstevenson.com/missiontrip